Mia Dona: Breathtakingly Reasonable, Earthy Food

I've been meaning to write about Mia Dona for weeks now, and now that Frank Bruni has weighed in with a carefully considered review of Mike Psilakis' and Donatella Arpeia's newest restaurant, I feel remiss in not commenting before this. Having eaten Psilakis' food in his Long Island restaurant Ecco long before he opened any of his Manhattan restaurants, I can tell you that he has always been a cook with a restless culinary intellect and remarkable focus. But with Mia Dona, we are seeing and tasting food that shows that Psilakis has now reached a point where he is incredibly comfortable in his own culinary skin. His flights of fancy have been tempered by his experience and his passion for long, deep-flavored food. Go to Mia Dona and have the crispy rabbit and chips in a soothing remoulade sauce, the sheep's milk ricotta gnudi with crispy speck in black truffle butter, the killer meatloaf, and the bigoli, hollow spaghetti, with pork sausage, broccoli rabe, lentils, and peperoncini. It's deeply felt (bighearted is what Bruni called Mia Dona), incredibly delicious food cooked by a chef who's in full command of his heart and his intellect.

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